Shameik Moore’s performance channels the subtlety of what one year can do to a teen boy’s demeanor and strikes a good balance between Miles’ more pronounced angst - exacerbated by doubters on all sides - with the sensitive tender heart of the gifted and good guy we know him to be. Across the Spider-Verse extrapolates the self-doubt Miles feels in preparing for the next chapter in both of his lives into a full-blown multiversal action epic, with countless Spider-beings swinging by to needle his fragile sense of belonging.

Miles’ early and dismissive encounters with The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) and his many holes have surprising consequences and provide the catalyst needed to put him back in the path of his more experienced extradimensional counterparts. The multiverse is a consistently exciting, yet perilous proving ground for Miles, and though it isn’t perfect, his next big leap as Spider-Man confirms his elevation to hero status was no fluke. But, the substance doesn’t always overcome style here, and the specifics of Across the Spider-Verse’s story often get lost in the unstoppable pace of the action.

Across the Spider-Verse is as reverent an ode to webslinging - and to the storytelling possibilities of animation - as its forerunner. After 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse - which many consider the best Spider-Man movie to date - the kid who had to learn that anyone could wear the mask has to reckon with what to do with it while the world is watching, and how to hold on to agency in his own story when the past, present, and future are all screaming at him to do things the way they’re supposed to be done. There are great expectations for Miles Morales - from both the people he’s tasked with saving in his world and from us pure viewers to the thrills of that heroism - and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s boundless energy challenges them at every turn.

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